Theo Travis - Open Air (2016/2024) [Hi-Res]

On 19 May 2017 Tonefloat released Open Air – the brand new studio album by Theo Travis. The album comprises ten flute tracks – bass flute, alto flute, concert flute and various wood flutes, often layered in hypnotic loops and largely ambient and atmospheric in nature. Recorded in London in summer 2016 the album highlights Travis’s skill as one of today’s great flute players in ambient and progressive music.

The tracks on Open Air are largely atmospheric and textural but there is a wide range of compositions. Mostly completely original compositions there are two tracks that draw on other sources. ‘Magnify’ is a rhapsody based on a traditional Jewish hymn and ‘Whistman’s Wood’ is an arrangement of a composition by the English saxophonist and ECM Records artist John Surman. Travis features the bass flute on the track ‘Preacher and Flock’ – a call and response type piece featuring the deep and lush sound of the lowest of flutes . ‘Menacing Eyes’ is the dark opening track and features the only guest appearance on the album, classical cellist Judith Herbert. On ‘Sailing and Drifiting’ there is a dramatic use of stereo with the ebbing and flowing chord pattern in left and right speakers that fade into the distance throughout the course of the whole piece, as long slow alto flute lines flow and build. ‘Heading for Home’ starts with strange twisted flute lines leading to the nearest thing to a groove that appears on the album with a repeated bass line and finger clicking building to a funky ending. The album cover features the stunning photography of Brighton, UK photographer Mark Nelson and the design of Carl Glover.